The Benefits of Yoga for Kids

When we think about yoga, most of us conjure up a mental image of a sleek studio with natural lighting, evenly spaced mats on a polished hardwood floor and soft, natural music playing in the background—not usually a kid-centric activity.

But maybe it should be.

“Yoga, mindfulness and meditation create a safe place for children to practice and strengthen their internal locus of control,” Rabia Meghani says.

Meghani, 29, is a yoga therapist with a background in Montessori education. She has been practicing yoga regularly since she was just 4 years old.

Find local Montessori options here.

She is the lead trainer at Breathe For Change, a movement providing yoga teacher training to educators, partnering with schools, districts and organizations for both educator and student well-being.

Yoga creates a space between stimulus and action, and that space between is your choice, Meghani says. Yoga provides its practitioners with more opportunities to make informed decisions.

“Some people don’t feel anything at all [from yoga.] Every child comes from a different background. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but for most kids, it’s a place of empowerment,” Meghani says.

The physical aspects of yoga can help children hone their fine and gross motor skills while building strength and flexibility, and the mental aspects of yoga help kids improve their self-control, reduce their stress and anxiety and assist kids in regulating their emotions.
Western yoga is often movement-centric, according to Meghani, but yoga is so much more than that.

“Yoga is all about being present—you can practice yoga without even moving,” Meghani says.

According to Meghani, parents in the United States will find a lot of variety in the yoga programs available to them and their children. But there are a few things she says you should keep in mind when choosing a program: Does the program include all elements of yoga? Does the instructor have experience with children’s learning or a background in social-emotional learning? Is there an educational component?

Instructors like Meghani disagree with the idea of adapting yoga to be “fun and engaging” for kids, noting blending in kid-friendly elements such as story time can take away from yoga’s purpose.

“Making it fun and engaging takes away from what it is at its roots,” she says. “Fantasy, like talking trees and superheroes and yoga poses puts them in touch with a reality that doesn’t exist. If we’re teaching them fantasy, it’s not increasing their reality of control.”

But which kind of yoga class you choose depends on what you and your child are looking to get from the practice.

One unique way kids can experience yoga locally in Frederick is through Goat for the Soul. Goat for the Soul lets participants of all experience levels take a class with a pastoral farm setting as the studio and goats as their classmates.

Kids and their parents bring an old towel or yoga mat to a fenced-in area where friendly goats roam the field.

However, you aren’t required to participate in the yoga class if you’re just there for the goat cuddles.

The goats had their start as 4-H animals, raised by Christy Yingling’s children on their farm. Yingling, Goat for the Soul’s owner, has been hosting goat yoga since 2017.
“When my kids aged out and went to college, we had lots of friendly goats with no jobs,” Yingling says.

Yingling knew the therapeutic effect animals had on her and wanted to be able to share that with others through a therapeutic goat and yoga experience. Today, Goat for the Soul has five certified yoga instructors who travel with the herd to bring the experience all over the Frederick area.

Every goat yoga session takes place alongside an educational talk about goats including fun facts—like how goat meat is the most consumed meat per capita worldwide.
See where goat yoga is happening next at goatforthesoul.com.

For Parents

The benefits of yoga for kids are many, but there are even more benefits for parents doing yoga alongside their little ones. Kate Lombardo is a yoga instructor with YogaRenew, an international resource for yoga teacher training. Lombardo is also a mom of two, with a son who is 3 years old and a daughter close behind at 8 months.

“Seeing how important [yoga] was in parenthood made me more passionate. It was probably my saving grace from having a nervous breakdown,” Lombardo says.
Here are the benefits Lombardo noticed in her yoga-parenting journey:

Stress Relief

Yoga helps to pull your focus into the present moment, not on the to-do list or what happened that day. Usually, stress is caused by being pulled to the past or future.

Nervous System Regulation

Yoga helps you regulate yourself as a parent, which is helpful before attempting to help your children do the same. The more practice you get with that, the easier it is to find during times of tantrums or arguments or whatever season of life you’re in.

Improved Sleep

Any kind of exercise or physical movement has been proven to help with getting better sleep—something arguably every parent needs. Yoga drops you into that rest-and-restore state, which can be rejuvenating when you’re sleep deprived.

Physical Activity and Exercise

Prioritizing your physical health makes you better able to participate in activities with your children.

Author: Heather M. Ross